About Dalit Freedom Network Canada

We are a group of Canadians joining hands with an international network of people who care about India’s majority low caste. We strive to free these people through education and empowerment. Keep reading to learn more about how you can help free India’s low caste.

Who are India’s Low Caste?

The low caste people are the “broken, downtrodden, or oppressed”. They are people born into the lowest rung of India’s historically rigid societal system and who face prejudice, abuse and exploitation everyday.

Though laws in India give everyone equal status, low caste people still endure segregation and face “untouchability” due to ingrained cultural standards.

But their story doesn’t end here, watch our video to see what supporters like you can make possible.

Our Mission

We are committed to helping India’s poor and low caste overcome oppression, realize their human worth and dignity and gain self-reliance. Our mission is to bring hope and to empower these people by providing access to quality education. We believe everyone should have a chance at a bright future. We work among various communities and do not discriminate on the basis of caste, ethnicity, nationality, or religious identity.

The poor and low caste are constantly robbed of their dignity in the name of ‘tradition’. We strive to change attitudes around this practice and to give these people what every human being deserves: to live free of discrimination, economically, socially and spiritually.

Our Main Goals

With the help of our supporters, we strive to:

Provide English education for poor and low caste children by building schools in areas of India where there are no provisions for English medium education.

Give every poor and low caste child the chance to develop their full potential by realizing their human worth, social equality and dignity.

Suraya’s Story

Suraya* was just seven years old when she started studying at our Good Shepherd School, but she was already working to help support her family. Her single mother worked in a match factory and to help make ends meet, she brought matchboxes home for her daughter to assemble.

Thankfully, one of our Good Shepherd School managers came to know Suraya and her mother and invited her to attend the school. Suraya loved her classes so much that she decided to become a teacher herself.

Last year, this bright young woman completed her training through the Good Shepherd Teacher’s Training College and is now a teacher in the same school she herself attended.

Suraya could have faced the fate of so many low caste women: denied the chance to rise out of poverty, a target for abuse and sexual violence. Now her dreams have come true, and all it took was an education.

*Names have been changed due to privacy reasons.

A poor and low caste child has the odds stacked against them from birth, but an education can change that. Being able to go to school does more than give a child the chance to learn and grow–it unlocks the door to freedom.